UPDATE: The release of this report and the May webinar have been postponed. Please stay tuned for the new dates!

One of the many exciting events occurring during AACTE’s Washington Week (June 3-6) will be the release of Colleges of Education: A National Portrait, a major new report from AACTE that provides a comprehensive picture of today’s schools, colleges, and departments of education: the work they do, the people who do that work, and the students they serve. Please join author Jacqueline E. King for a free webinar May 15, 2:00-3:00 p.m. EDT, to preview the report’s major findings.

AACTE produced this report to describe the many ways that its members contribute to U.S. education and to outline some of the challenges they face. The report also provides a wealth of information that colleges of education can use for benchmarking their work. Below are just a few of the report’s many findings:

There are 1,689 colleges of education in the United States, defined as 4-year colleges and universities that award degrees and/or certificates in education at the bachelor’s level or higher.

Colleges of education award degrees and certificates in more than 100 specialties.

Eight-eight percent of the organizations that offer teacher preparation programs are 2- and 4-year colleges and universities. The remaining 12% are school districts, nonprofit organizations, and other entities that run state-approved alternative teacher preparation programs.

The number of women earning graduate degrees in education has increased over the long term, even as the number earning bachelor’s degrees in education has dropped.

The average age of full professors of education is 62, suggesting that a considerable proportion of faculty are older than the traditional retirement age of 65 and are likely to retire at some point in the next decade.

Despite concerted efforts to recruit diverse students, colleges of education are not nearly as racially and ethnically diverse as the PK-12 schools where they prepare students to work. In 2018, 52% of students in public schools are projected to be non-White, but only 25% of those earning undergraduate degrees and certificates from colleges of education are people of color.

Author King and AACTE President/CEO Lynn M. Gangone presented a preview of the National Portrait at the AACTE Annual Meeting in Baltimore, where it generated considerable interest. Find out why in our free webinar May 15!